One Piece: A Warlord's Path

Chapter 711: Bivins Kingdom - The War of National Extinction (12)

"How is this possible?"

Hack’s face was etched with gravity. Despite taking his punch head-on in a hurry, his opponent hadn’t budged an inch. Was the gap between himself and a Chris Pirate Commander truly this vast?

"Get lost! Thermal Steel Fist!!!"

Abel violently shook off Hack’s grip. His fist, glowing with a dull red heat and reinforced by steel, tore through the air with a concussive boom that sounded like the atmosphere itself was exploding.

"Oh no!"

Even before the fist connected, a blade-like pressure arrived a testament to the terrifying physical strength behind the strike. Horrified, Hack managed to cross his arms just in time to block.

BAM! CRACK—! BOOM!!!

The dull thud of the impact was instantly followed by the sickening sound of snapping bone. Hack took the full brunt of the hit as if he’d been struck by a high-speed Sea Train. He turned into a black blur, hurtling backward through several tents before slamming into the ground, carving out a massive crater.

"Hack!" Sabo cried out in alarm.

"Worry about yourself!" Backan barked. He lunged forward and leaped high into the air, bringing a massive fist down toward Sabo.

Sabo felt the gale of the incoming strike, forced himself to focus, and retreated instantly.

KABOOM—!

Backan’s fist missed, burying half his arm into the earth. The sheer force sent a tremor through the camp, creating a crater over a meter wide and webbed with deep fissures.

Rumble...

Backan pulled his arm from the ground, shaking off shards of stone.

"Finish him!" Abel’s eyes turned predatory. He charged, his entire body emitting hissing white steam. His skin was a searing crimson, looking like a red-hot branding iron.

"Don’t give me orders!" Backan grunted, but he too charged toward Sabo, his massive frame barreling forward like a heavy tank.

Facing the pincer attack of two Chris Pirate Commanders, Sabo’s brow furrowed. His muscles tensed as he tracked both men closing in from his flanks.

Whoosh— Whistle...

Suddenly, the wind began to howl. The sky, which had been clear just moments ago, darkened abruptly. Thick, obsidian clouds boiled and surged, and the world was plunged into a desolate, shrieking gale.

Rumble... Crack-boom!

Thunder roared incessantly as serpents of lightning danced within the clouds, forming a massive storm system that stretched for dozens of kilometers.

"What?!"

"That’s—"

The sudden atmospheric shift forced Sabo, Backan, and Abel to halt their movements, their eyes wide with shock.

FLASH—!

A bolt of lightning seared through the sky, illuminating the world with a blinding white glare. A massive pillar of thunder descended, striking the heart of the Revolutionary Army camp. It blasted a crater into the earth and instantly turned a dozen men into charred husks.

"Yah-ha-ha-ha! Die, you insects!"

"Mamaragan!!!"

Following a cackling, manic voice from the heavens, countless bolts of lightning rained down like a torrential storm. It was a terrifying cataclysm, a sky-shattering deluge of electricity that looked like the coming of the apocalypse.

"That bastard! Enel, you son of a...!"

"I’m going to kill him! Damn that guy!"

The faces of Backan and Abel paled instantly. Cursing at the sky, they abandoned the fight and scrambled for cover, not even bothering to look back.

"Hey, hey, hey... isn’t this a bit much?!" Sabo’s face twitched as he stared at the doomsday sky in disbelief.

BOOM! CRASH! BOOM! BOOM!

For a time, the world was filled with nothing but the deafening roar of thunder. Countless people were reduced to smoldering charcoal under the divine wrath of nature. Wood turned to ash, and metal was torn to shreds by the electrical discharge.

"Yah-ha-ha-ha! Yah-ha-ha-ha!"

A thousand meters up, Enel stood at the prow of the Chris, his arms spread wide as he laughed with manic glee.

Under his stimulation, the electrons in the storm clouds discharged violently toward the earth. By guiding natural lightning, he had turned the entire Revolutionary Army camp into a lightning-swept hellscape. Thousands were incinerated instantly; the survivors could only huddle in frozen terror.

In the past, Enel required the Ark Maxim to create widespread storm clouds. Now, he achieved this "Thunderstorm" ultimate move entirely on his own.

The horrific bombardment lasted nearly half an hour before the storm clouds finally began to dissipate.

Below, Sabo crawled out from the debris of a collapsed tent. He spat out a mouthful of dirt and sand, looking around in a daze.

Smoke rose from the scarred earth. The ground was littered with scorched craters, and the Revolutionary Army camp was a ruin. As far as the eye could see, there were only charred corpses piled upon one another.

A strike of this magnitude would have leveled a city, let alone a military camp. In a single move, tens of thousands had perished. To Enel, however, those lives were nothing more than dust.

"Oh~ Yah-ha-ha-ha!" Enel gloated, looking down at the devastation from the ship’s prow.

Mina and Dimitri looked on with a hint of pity but remained silent. Aeridar and Oliver, however, remained expressionless.

"He wrecked my Dragonians. Just wait until I get my hands on him," Aeridar muttered, clearly annoyed.

"Seriously, Backan and Abel are going to be furious," Oliver said, rolling his eyes.

Such a wide-range attack surely caught their own Animate constructs, the expensive Dragonians, each worth a billion Berries, and even their fellow officers in the blast radius. While the Commanders were likely fine, being targeted by Enel’s "friendly fire" would certainly spark their rage.

"Relax. Under the shroud of my Mantra, everything is under control," Enel boasted.

The Rumble-Rumble Fruit provided a natural boost to Observation Haki. Combined with years of systematic training, Enel’s Mantra was peerless. Even without reaching the level of "Future Sight," he could guide the lightning to avoid his comrades with precision.

"I hope they listen to your explanation," Mina remarked with a skeptical pout.

Aeridar’s expression turned serious as he waved a hand. "Enough. The Revolutionary Army is finished. Time for us to head down and sweep up the remains."

"Boring," Oliver muttered, his hand resting on the hilt of his blade, Nagamitsu, as he finally showed a spark of interest. "I wonder if that Chief of Staff is dead or if he managed to tuck tail and run?"

With a thought, the Float-Float Fruit’s power activated, and the entire fleet began a rapid descent toward the blackened earth.